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Drive SEO results with artificial intelligence https://ift.tt/2Az9dss One of the more powerful subsets of Artificial Intelligence (AI) being used these days in SEO is machine learning, which deals specifically with the training of algorithms, or understanding how and why algorithms work. But machine learning is only as good as the data it is operating on. Part of what makes a great use case for machine learning is having large amounts of very precise data. Without this precision however, model guidance gets murky, and often leads to erroneous (and costly) conclusions. Are you using the right data? You can’t just take Google ranking data, which is effectively the output of a black box, feed it into some sort of machine learning, and automatically get positive results. This white paper from Market Brew shows you how to drive better SEO results with AI and precision data. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download “Implementing Artificial Intelligence to Attack SEO.” About The Author
Digital Marketing Depot
is a resource center for digital marketing strategies and tactics. We feature hosted white papers and E-Books, original research, and webcasts on digital marketing topics -- from advertising to analytics, SEO and PPC campaign management tools to social media management software, e-commerce to e-mail marketing, and much more about internet marketing. Digital Marketing Depot is a division of Third Door Media, publisher of Search Engine Land and Marketing Land, and producer of the conference series Search Marketing Expo and MarTech. Visit us at http://digitalmarketingdepot.com. SEO via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/1BDlNnc October 29, 2018 at 01:05PM
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Google Campaign Manager Now Offers LinkedIn Ad Attribution by @MattGSouthern https://ift.tt/2PvCr42 LinkedIn has integrated with Google Campaign Manager, which will allow advertisers to monitor LinkedIn ad performance and get attribution for LinkedIn ads across platforms. When advertisers activate the integration they will be able to see their LinkedIn ad performance in Campaign Manager (formerly DoubleClick Campaign Manager) and use the conversion attribution capabilities for Sponsored Content campaigns. Types of Sponsored Content campaigns include:
LinkedIn states in the company’s announcement:
What Does This Mean for Marketers?Integration of LinkedIn ad attribution with Google Campaign Manager offers the following benefits to marketers:
How to Activate the IntegrationAdvertisers can activate the integration by following the steps below. Step 1After creating a Sponsored Content campaign as a “Draft’, click the “Manage tracking” bullseye icon to add your Google tracking tags. Step 2Add both the impression and clicks tags, and hit “Save”. Tags for carousel and video campaign go here as well. Other RecommendationsLinkedIn strongly recommends using click tags through the method above instead of “destination URL” or landing page URL tracking. This will allow advertisers to more accurately track all interactions with LinkedIn ads. After adding a click tag, make sure to remove any existing URL wrappers to avoid double counting. LinkedIn is working on adding more metrics, such as social actions, and offering more seamless tracking with Google Campaign Manager. Subscribe to SEJGet our weekly newsletter from SEJ's Founder Loren Baker about the latest news in the industry! SEO via Search Engine Journal https://ift.tt/1QNKwvh October 29, 2018 at 12:08PM
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Google’s Homepage on Mobile Receives a Major Redesign by @MattGSouthern https://ift.tt/2Stegle Google’s homepage on mobile devices now contains a lot more than just a search bar. The mobile version of Google.com has received its most significant redesign in years, and now more closely resembles the Google Search app. Google Discover, formerly known as Google Feed, has been placed immediately below the search bar. This section features content tailored to a user’s personal interests. Content recommendations are based on data in a user’s Google account, such as web activity, device information, location history, and location settings. Here’s an example of what it looks like. Bear in mind that content included in these screenshots is tailored to my interests as the logged-in user. What others see will vary from person to person. At first glance, it looks exactly like the mobile app, but Google Discover in mobile browsers has a couple of unique features. The most noticeable unique feature is the topic header that appears above stories. Users can tap on the header to view more content about that specific topic. Users can also choose to ‘follow’ specific topics of interest to them. Another unique feature is a button on the bottom-right corner of each story, which lets users indicate whether they want to see more or less of that type of story. Google announced last month that this change was on the way, although it seems to only be available in the US at the moment. Perhaps a wider rollout is on the way, but Google hasn’t provided any specifics about when and where this will be available. Those who preferred the look of the old homepage can turn off Google Discover by following these steps:
Subscribe to SEJGet our weekly newsletter from SEJ's Founder Loren Baker about the latest news in the industry! SEO via Search Engine Journal https://ift.tt/1QNKwvh October 29, 2018 at 11:31AM
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Expert testing strategies for both low and high volume PPC accounts https://ift.tt/2qhPbNy In a session at SMX East on testing in paid search accounts, speakers Amalia Fowler, account director at Snaptech Marketing, and Aaron Levy, director of paid search at Elite SEM, approached the topic from two polar perspectives: low volume accounts and enterprise-scale accounts. The juxtaposition made for engaging discussion. Amalia Fowler on testing in low volume accountsIn discussing testing risks and challenges for low conversion volume accounts, Fowler stressed the need to be extra selective and strategic about what you test. She provided a template for a “What if” testing ideas spreadsheet in which teams can collaborate to capture what has been tested in the past, those results and ideas for future tests. “We need to consider, what would happen if [the test] failed? Is the business going to be okay? Will stakeholders be okay with failure?” said Fowler. Importantly, she added, “We need a hypothesis for every test. That’s the guiding force for the entire testing process.” Particularly for low volume accounts, it may be necessary to test across multiple campaigns or ad groups. Fowler also said she sometimes lowers the statistical confidence level for a test from 95 percent to 90 percent. Google Ads’ draft and experiments confidence level is 95 percent, she noted. “Define your minimum necessary data. And prepare other people to wait for tests to complete when you have low volume accounts,” she advised. No matter the account volume, however, Fowler said, “Don’t wait until something is broken to start testing. Be proactive rather than reactive.” For more tips, see the full presentation below. Aaron Levy on testing in high volume accountsLevy discussed testing into the future, with a particular focus on high volume accounts. While Fowler stressed the need to test across multiple entities when volume is low, Levy presented several segmentation scenarios for accounts that have millions of keywords, automation is a must and budgets are large. “Keywords are an old data level,” he said. “We have many more ways of targeting now. AdWords is now called Google Ads for a reason.” When discussing Smart Bidding, Levy said Smart Bidding usually means “spend more,” but that’s not inherently a bad thing from a profit perspective. Levy says companies need to embrace a testing culture and referred to his “Now, next, new” budget strategy for clients to allocate 70 percent of their paid search budgets to ongoing and proven efforts, 20 percent to evolving existing efforts and 10 percent to innovation and brand new tests. “Making room for failure encourages experimentation,” said Levy. However, that doesn’t mean blindly experimenting. You should build tolerance forecasts to mitigate risks. “Learning periods cost. If a test works, you need to make up the cost of the experiment,” he said. How long will it take to complete the payback period of a test? Are you okay if a test never pays for itself? “That’s what the testing budget is for,” he said. With automation, Levy said, the robots only care about two things: expected conversion rate and average order value. “If old campaigns are not designed for new automation, it won’t work,” cautioned Levy. You need to “structure your campaigns for success”. That means adding every audience possible on observe (though you don’t need to segment by recency since that is handled automatically). “The more you constrict the algorithms, the worse they will perform,” said Levy. “You’re adding in your own bias by adding restrictions. Err on the side of broad.” That said, Levy noted that to structure for success you need to eliminate the stuff you know is not performing and remove outliers like a higher converting keyword from an ad group. Then give the machines the freedom to learn for a couple of weeks. Levy also discussed the need to let go of match types when letting the machines run a test with Google Ads’ drafts and experiments. Check out his full presentation below, including recommended testing thresholds. About The AuthorGinny Marvin is Third Door Media's Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin. SEO via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/1BDlNnc October 29, 2018 at 10:07AM
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5 Ways Ecommerce Brands Should Approach Content Marketing by @Manish_Analyst https://ift.tt/2Rl3b4e Ecommerce is the present and the future. Perhaps the clearest reminder of this happened recently when Sears filed for bankruptcy. As more brick-and-mortar conglomerates bite the dust and online sales continue to climb, the ability of a smaller ecommerce brand to stand above the crowd will determine its life or death. As many businesses know at this point, content marketing is the crucial ingredient for this task. The landscape of content marketing is changing like crazy. As the standards of SEO, web design, writing, etc. continue to evolve, businesses from all industries are continuously forced to refine their approaches. The harsh reality is that some strategies can work like magic one day, then be completely obsolete the next. Nowadays, the scope of what defines “good content” for ecommerce businesses is a layered concept that involves many elements. Let’s discuss five ways ecommerce brands can establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with. 1. Prioritize E-A-T ScoreOne the most important recent changes to Google’s search quality ratings guidelines involved E-A-T score (Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness). There is now a strong focus on applying this score to individual content creators, rather than brands themselves. The idea is to refine the way content is ranked based on the source. For example, if someone is producing content and weight supplements, they should have a strong E-A-T score in the medical field. So how does this factor in for ecommerce brands? Google’s algorithms are designed to mimic hypothetical human quality raters. That being said, if you want your product pages to rank highly on the SERPs, you need to find ways to improve your E-A-T score. ExpertiseYou need to prove to the search engines (and the users) that you have a proven knowledge of the goods you sell. As an ecommerce retailer, start by making sure that you work with highly reputable manufacturers. If you make it a point to showcase that your suppliers/manufacturers have recognized expertise in your field, this is going to reflect on you. Additionally, you can reach out to renowned figures with proven industry expertise to give you recommendations. The functionality, aesthetics, and integrity of your website play a huge role in how experts will decide to recommend you and your products. AuthorityThis is all about verifying Expertise. In the ecommerce world, it’s easy for bigger companies that manufacture their own products (like L.L Bean and Nike) to be seen as highly authoritative. Third-party sellers, on the other hand, need to have evidence that they are a verified merchant for certain products. For example, if you have the Better Business Bureau logo linked to your website with verified affiliation, the page would likely rank higher. TrustworthinessGetting your product pages to rank well comes down to the concept of customer success. For instance:
These are just a few pieces of the puzzle when it comes to building trust. Essentially, the more descriptive, intuitive, and secure your product pages are, the better they will rank. E-A-T score has been building up in importance for some time now, and will continue to in the future. In order to get product pages ranked, these guidelines will need to play a key role in your content marketing strategy. 2. Integrate Video into Product Pages & BeyondThe biggest drawback of buying online has always been the inability to look at products in person. For the most part, you never really know what you are getting until it shows up on your doorstep. Now, AR has been doing amazing things to remedy this problem. However, most online brands aren’t IKEA – they don’t have the budget to spend on this flashy feature. That being said, incorporating video into your product pages and content marketing plan should be a must. It’s no secret that the internet loves video content. In fact, it’s estimated that nearly 75 percent of all online traffic is video. Starting with product pages, video does wonders to give buyers a visual understanding of what they are buying. Seeing a real human handling the product is about as close as they can get to seeing it in person. Take a look at this one from Saddleback Leather: VIDEO This video does a fantastic job of giving viewers everything they need to know about the product, along with some personal insight. Simply put, images and descriptions of products can only get you so far. Now, outside of the product page, you can use video to discuss the latest trends in your industry, compare items, bring in guests, etc. Keep in mind, the search engines and social media (Facebook especially) favors video in their ranking algorithms. Using video across the entire scope of your ecommerce content marketing plan does a lot to solidify your brand voice and values, as well as gives potential buyers all the information they need. 3. Focus on Qualified Reviews from Google PartnersNearly everyone who has ever bought something online knows how much customer reviews can influence purchasing decisions. Reviews are validation from a third-party source with no ulterior motives. That’s why reviews are extremely powerful in convincing people to buy. Unfortunately, many companies and review services took advantage of this and would produce phony reviews in an attempt to increase customer confidence. Over time, both consumers and the search engines wised up to this shady practice. Reviews have been a ranking signal for a while, but Google has made it a point to favor those that are left via a verified Google Review Partner. Partner platforms like Trustpilot and Yotpo do a lot to ensure all reviews are authentic and timely, and for that, Google sees them as credible resources. These verified reviews can do a lot to improve your Google Seller Ratings. Moreover, review snippets help you stand out in organic search: So, as an ecommerce brand, you are very wise to choose a verified Google Review Platform to collect and manage customer sentiment. Many of these programs give you the ability to turn your reviews into visually appealing pieces of content that can be displayed on your website, social media, and more. Reviews, testimonials, and all other forms of user-generated content are extremely powerful content marketing weapons, especially for ecommerce. The rising importance of collecting and promoting positive sentiment is certainly a trend that will continue to grow. 4. Team Up with Micro-InfluencersA huge misconception exists about influencer marketing. Many brands think that only the influencers with the largest followings are worth going after for a campaign. In other words, when they are conducting their research for potential partners, they tend to put the number of followers as the top deciding factor. This is not a smart move for smaller brands because it:
That being said, smaller ecommerce businesses should make it a point to look into micro-influencers. In contrast to the megastars, the typical following of a micro-influencer is under 100,000. Engagement levels tend to fall as an influencer gains more followers. Accounts with 1,000 followers or less normally see an 8 percent like rate, whereas this number drops to about 4 percent in followings of 1,001-9,999. The takeaway is that smaller followers tend to be more focused on the message. When it comes to influencer marketing, engagement will always be more important than the number of followers. A couple of years ago, Banana Republic did a great job choosing micro-influencers to promote their products on Instagram. By using a diverse set of industry influencers for different styles and hashtags, they were able to reach a plethora of different audience segments for relatively cheap! So, instead of dumping all your budget on a single big name, you are wise to choose several different micro-influencers. Your engagement rates will likely be much higher and give you a better ROI. 5. Do It for a CauseCause marketing has been a huge buzzword in recent years. In the realm of content marketing, it can do wonders to create a more loyal and devoted customer base. According to Edelman, 64 percent of consumers buy on belief, and will choose, switch, boycott, or avoid brands based on their standing in relation to a social issue. Now, cause marketing can be a small as a monthly or annual contribution to a cause. Or, the cause can define the brand itself. Patagonia has been doing this successfully since day one. As an ecommerce brand looking to get the ball rolling in cause marketing, several key factors come into play. First and foremost, you need to choose a cause that has parallels with your business goals. If there are no congruencies, it will look like a cheap PR stunt. KFC’s “Buckets for a Cure” campaign is a prime example of this type of failure. A few years back, KFC paired with the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research and donated $0.50 for every bucket of chicken sold. In terms of money raised, it was a great success. However, from a PR standpoint, it missed the mark horribly. This is because fried chicken simply has nothing to do with breast cancer. Many would argue that greasy fast food can actually increase the risk of cancer! The lesson here is to choose a cause wisely and prove that you have a strong business devotion. Next, once you’ve chosen a fitting cause, you need to figure out the details of how you will contribute.
There are several types of cause marketing to consider. Be critical in your choice and understand how it will benefit both parties. In a nutshell, cause marketing shows customers that their money is going to something greater than both themselves and the seller. One of my favorite examples is TOMS’ One-for-One campaign. When a customer purchases a pair of shoes from TOMS, the company donates a pair to children in developing countries. The campaign has given more than 35 million pairs of shoes to children in need. Now, something like this might not be feasible for a small ecommerce operation. The most important thing is that you prove you are devoted and promote the fact that buying your product is making the world a better place. SummaryThere’s no denying that ecommerce businesses have it tough these days. After all, they are going up against one of the biggest business giants to ever grace the world: Amazon. If you look at all the successful ecommerce brands out there (aside from Amazon and eBay), the biggest common thread is that they produce and distribute stellar content. If you are looking to gain traction for your ecommerce store, keep these five strategies in mind. More Content Marketing Resources: Image Credits Screenshots taken by author, October 2018 Subscribe to SEJGet our weekly newsletter from SEJ's Founder Loren Baker about the latest news in the industry! SEO via Search Engine Journal https://ift.tt/1QNKwvh October 29, 2018 at 09:37AM Bug: Google Knowledge Panel Image Goes Missing https://ift.tt/2zc1JKf It looks like there is a recent bug with the Google knowledge panel images that some are actually missing. It was working fine a couple of hours ago, but right now, the images for many are simply blank. I assume it will be fixed soon. The image above is for a search on [rustybrick] - it should show this in that image box white area: But right now, it is white and blank. This was reported first about 45 minutes ago in the Local Search Forums and I suspect it will be resolved and fixed soon. Forum discussion at Local Search Forums. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable https://ift.tt/1sYxUD0 October 29, 2018 at 08:37AM
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11 Ways to Get Started with Chatbots for Facebook Messenger by @KristiKellogg https://ift.tt/2OcKuha Want to tap into Facebook Messenger’s massive audience of more than 1.3 billion users? With unprecedented ROI (70-80 percent engagement within the first hour), developing a chatbot for Facebook Messenger is a must. Don’t know where to begin? You aren’t alone. “A lot of people don’t understand how easy it really is to build a chatbot. They assume the development is cumbersome when, in reality, anyone can do it — you don’t have to be a coder to build a Facebook Messenger chatbot,” said Purna Virji, Senior Manager of Global Engagement at Microsoft. In reality, figuring out what to create is more challenging than actually creating it. Virji’s advice: “Start with something small. Ask yourself, what’s one thing a bot can do for my business? Find that opportunity and run with it.” Search Engine Journal developed a savvy Facebook Messenger chatbot using MobileMonkey. Among other things, the SEJ chatbot:
Now, we want to help you get started with Facebook Messenger marketing. Here are 11 ways you can get started using a chatbot for your business right now. 1. Automate Q&AAutomating Q&A is the simplest way to use a chatbot. Simple, straightforward questions can easily be answered by a chatbot. “Go through your purchase funnel and determine what people are asking customer service,” Virji said. This will give you a good foundation for what kind of questions your bot could answer. Consider creating a chatbot to answer questions like:
2. Deliver Daily or Weekly MessagesDepending on your brand, you can send out weekly or evenly daily messages. For example, a bookstore might send out the New York Times bestseller list on Sundays, or a yoga brand might send out positive mantras every morning. 3. Prompt Users to Book a Service or Make AppointmentsDoes your business take appointments? A chatbot can set them up for you. Sephora’s Facebook Messenger chatbot offers users the ability to book a makeover as soon they connect. 4. Send Special Offers & CouponsMeet your customers where they are by sending them exclusive deals, coupons, and promo codes straight via Facebook Messenger. “Let’s say a Clinique customer buys a 90-day supply of face cream,” Virji said. “What if 75 days after a purchase, Facebook Messenger (powered by a chatbot) delivers a 10 percent off coupon on that same cream? It’s useful, friendly and timely.” 5. Take OrdersIf your business takes orders, a chatbot can also streamline this for you. Pizza Hut’s Facebook Messenger subscribers, for example, can complete an entire order from start to finish without ever leaving the app. 6. Deliver Breaking NewsPublishers have the unique opportunity to deliver news up to the second with Facebook Messenger. This is one of the ways SEJ uses Facebook Messenger. Let’s say Google announces a major shakeup to the algorithm — SEJ can immediately send out a message to all its Facebook Messenger subscribers. 7. Conduct Quizzes, Surveys & PollsYou can collect information on your contacts through the strategic use of surveys. This will allow you to better serve them better and deliver more targeted content. Take a look at how Spotify does it. SEJ, for example, occasionally surveys Facebook Messenger subscribers to identify what topics they’re most interested: SEO, PPC, SMM, content marketing or all of the above. By having the chatbot segment SEJ’s subscribers, it allows them to deliver highly targeted, personalized content that will be of value. 8. Give Order Updates & Shipping StatusOnce customers have placed an order, you can use Facebook Messenger to ping them with updates on their shipping status. 9. Announce Blog Posts or Send New Content to SubscribersThink of Facebook Messenger as a new and improved RSS feed. If you have a blog, you can send out a message promoting your new posts. By no means does this have to be all your blog posts, especially if you’re a high-frequency publisher. In that case, choose your best content so as not to overwhelm your subscribers! 10. Drive Event RegistrationHave an event coming up? Whether it’s a live event or webinar, you can drive registration by messaging your subscribers information about your upcoming event. Include a picture, text and add a button where users can sign up — with a simple click, they’ll be able to register. Here, MobileMonkey invites people to register for a virtual summit, and prompts them to sign up all within Messenger. 11. Send Out Reminders for Upcoming EventsIf you’re having an upcoming event or sale, sending out a reminder beforehand is another great use of Facebook Messenger. This is another way that SEJ uses chatbots. An hour before one of SEJ’s webinars is about to begin, a reminder with a link to the webinar is sent out to all registrants. Time to Build Your Own ChatbotThere you have it: 11 ways to get started with chatbots for Facebook Messenger today. Now it’s time to get to building! Connect with SEJ on Facebook Messenger and subscribe to the SEJ newsletter for more news on chatbots and Facebook Messenger marketing! Full disclosure: I have a business relationship with MobileMonkey. More Facebook Marketing Resources: Image Credits Featured & In-post Images: Screenshots taken by author, October 2018 Subscribe to SEJGet our weekly newsletter from SEJ's Founder Loren Baker about the latest news in the industry! SEO via Search Engine Journal https://ift.tt/1QNKwvh October 29, 2018 at 08:37AM
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Google launches new design for hotel search results https://ift.tt/2Ay1lYj Google is rolling out a new design for the hotel search results after you search for hotel listings and click into the hotel interface from web search. The new design uses a grid and card interface that shows hotel cards sorted by your search filter. You can further filter down the search results on the map by zooming in and/or dragging the map around. You can also change your date range, price ranges, review ranges and more, as well as specify which amenities are required and more. New look: Here is a screen shot of the search results landing page for the new design: Previous design: This is what this page looked like back in 2015: Deeper pages: Here is what happens when you click into a specific hotel listing: Previous design tests: Google has been testing this for the past several months as Sergey Alakov said and here are a couple of those tests we’ve seen earlier: Why it matters? If you are a hotel provider, the design change to hotel search results in Google could impact your bookings. Keep an eye on the change, how your bookings and traffic change with it and make any necessary tweaks to improve your traffic from Google search. About The AuthorBarry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics. SEO via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/1BDlNnc October 29, 2018 at 08:17AM
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Is Google's PageRank Algorithm Still Important For Google Search Rankings? https://ift.tt/2qgHYNq Long gone are the times of monthly Google PageRank updates, Google dances, and checking Google data centers - and to be honest, I somewhat miss those days. But the question I see asked a lot is how much have things changed? The answer is a lot has changed but fundamentally nothing has changed. The reason I bring up this question is because I saw it asked twice today. Once to John Mueller of Google on Twitter and the other time in the Matt Cutts interview. John said things have changed over the years and he doubts it is the same algorithm it once was and he doubts it is used as it once was back in the old days. Here is John's tweet:
Of course, this response is kind of around the 302 redirect debate that has been going on for years. But I love how Matt Cutts talked about the PageRank algorithm stating yea, it probably changed here and there but fundamentally the original concept of PageRank and how Google wants to rank sites has not changed. Google wants to rank the most trusted and respected sites top and PageRank was around figuring out the sites that people vouched for the most. So yes, it has probably changed a lot but no, fundamentally the end goal is the same here. Oh, and also for you junkies, check out a recent post by Dixon Jones out of retirement on how PageRank works. Forum discussion at Twitter. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable https://ift.tt/1sYxUD0 October 29, 2018 at 07:35AM
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How to Boost Your Visibility on Google Images by @lorenbaker https://ift.tt/2OdFFUS Image optimization is among the most manageable yet overlooked strategies for SEO. Often, we neglect even the simplest image optimization practices and waste the chance to bring in easy traffic to our websites. On October 24, I moderated a Best of SEJ Summit webinar presented by Gary Illyes, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google. Illyes shared actionable insights on how to boost your images’ visibility on Google Images considerably. Here’s a recap of the webinar presentation. How Google Images WorkIn order to show up on Google Images, photographs and images hosted on public and searchable websites go through: CrawlingGoogle crawls tons of webpages to extract available images – essentially searching for the <img> HTML tag. The “src” and “alt” attributes are also considered. IndexingAll crawled images are then organized into general and specific categories during indexing. RankingGoogle returns the best possible images for a particular searcher’s query. On the image search result pages, it also displays more information from each image’s source using additional metadata (i.e., structured data) it has extracted. Optimizing Images for SearchTo optimize your content for search engines, you should:
How You Can Do Better on Google Images1. Robots’ Access: Make Sure Your Images Are Accessible to GooglebotYou can check whether your pages and images are accessible to Googlebot using Google’s free tools such as: Test a few of your URLs in the Mobile-Friendly Test to see if Googlebot can access your pages. This includes image URLs you can find in the IMG tags’ “src” attribute. If they are not, it’s usually because of your robots.txt file that blocks search engines’, or even just Google’s, access to images. 2. Help Robots Find the Images: Submit an Image SitemapIn many cases, images are injected with JavaScript, which delays the discovery of said files. You can avoid this from happening by using image sitemaps which are an extension of standard sitemaps. Most likely, your site already has a sitemap. What you need to do is add additional data to your current sitemaps about where the images of each page on your site are located. Traditionally, Googlebots’ main discovery method is by following links, including images, from the HTML of your pages. But as the web becomes more and more JavaScript-heavy, image sitemaps will help Googlebot enormously with the discovery process. The faster Googlebot discovers your images, the faster your images can show up in Google Images, and the sooner you can get traffic to your website. 3. Content: Include Descriptive Text Near the ImageIndexing uses the text around the image to learn what the image is about. If you don’t have text on the page then Google will have a harder time identifying what the image is showing. Make sure that the textual content around the image is available and it’s relevant to the image. This can be a caption or actual text within your article. 4. Add an Alt Attribute That Concisely & Accurately Describes the ImageYou should use the alt attribute whenever possible to concisely and accurately describe the image that you’re showing on the page. This is the number one priority in terms of annotating images as this can help you a lot with ranking. The alt attribute should describe what your image is showing. You should not use it to insert the query that you want this image to rank for. Based on extra signals that Google gets from each page, it will be able to tell if the alt attribute you provided is accurate. So stay away from spammy techniques! 5. Leverage Structured DataAdding structured data to your pages and images may result in having your images badged and stand out more in image search. If you have an ecommerce website, look into adding markup to your product pages. This will enable Google to display detailed product information in Google Images. Remember to only use structured data that is actually relevant to the page. 6. Metadata: Ensure the HTML Title & Description of the Page Are Relevant to the ImageYou can also make use of HTML tags to describe what your image is about. Other TakeawaysPhoto MetadataGoogle does not currently read EXIF metadata for categorization purposes. However, it now supports IPTC photo metadata to display image credits. Image File NameUsing a descriptive file name for your images is helpful but not a large requirement, unlike the alt attribute. Lazy LoadingLazy loading is a way to speed up your website – specifically image-heavy pages. When a user loads an image-heavy webpage, the browser has to synchronously load every single image. The user ends up waiting for every single image to download regardless if they will actually scroll into position to see that actual image. With lazy loading, you use JavaScript to only load the images that are in the viewport. SummaryHere are the basic steps you need to take to increase the chances of your images to show up and rank in Google Images.
Helpful Resources for Image Publishers[Video Recap] What Image Publishers Do to Find Success on Google ImagesWatch the video recap of the webinar presentation and Q&a session below. VIDEO More Image SEO Resources: Image Credits Screenshot taken by author, October 2018. Join Us for Our Next Webinar!Want to build more awesome links for your business? Join our next sponsored ThinkTank webinar on Wednesday, November 14 at 2:00 PM Eastern and learn how to quickly and efficiently execute three proven link building strategies. Subscribe to SEJGet our weekly newsletter from SEJ's Founder Loren Baker about the latest news in the industry! SEO via Search Engine Journal https://ift.tt/1QNKwvh October 29, 2018 at 07:33AM |
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